Qatari push to dominate another sport, table tennis, draws scrutiny

In a near-empty venue in a near-empty patch of desert on the outskirts of Doha, Qatar's capital, table tennis stars unfurled deadly slices and killer smashes last week as they vied to be crowned world champion.

Behind the scenes, another battle was playing out with just as much ferocity, as a wealthy Qatari businessperson sought the presidency of the governing body of international table tennis, the latest example of Persian Gulf interests trying to extend their influence over global sports.

For many people, table tennis may evoke images of college dorms or suburban basements, but it is one of the world's most popular sports and a growing commercial force, particularly in East Asia.

Interviews with dozens of the sport's current and former officials and players have cast light on the rising power of Persian Gulf nations such as Qatar and raised concerns about a history of bribery and lavish spending by Qatari officials -- in table tennis and in other sports.

Last Monday, a Swiss whistleblower who has tangled with Khalil Al-Mohannadi, a Qatari businessperson who hopes to be elected president of the International Table Tennis Federation this week, was detained at the sport's world championships in Doha.

The whistleblower, Georg Silberschmidt, a former official with Swiss Table Tennis, was surrounded by more than 20 security personnel and taken into custody after passing out flyers for a new players union meant to promote athletes' rights.

For 24 hours, he and two employees of the players union were interrogated, put in prison cells and pressured to sign documents in Arabic, a language they do not speak. A member of the union was shown a photo of Silberschmidt by a representative of the Qatar Table Tennis Association and was told that the Swiss man had broken the law.

Silberschmidt and the two other people detained were later released without charges and left the country.

"I don't think I will ever go back to Qatar," Silberschmidt said.

The International Table Tennis Federation's presidential election is Tuesday, and its integrity unit is investigating whether Al-Mohannadi or people supporting him are trying to influence the vote through monetary means, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The integrity unit declined to confirm or comment on specific cases under investigation.

But in a statement to The New York Times, the federation said that because of "the significance of our upcoming elections," it had "engaged leading professional support specialized in the sector to ensure compliance and enforcement."

"In response to recent allegations concerning certain candidates, we reiterate our absolute commitment to free, fair and clean elections," the statement said.

Al-Mohannadi, who is the federation's senior executive vice president, did not respond to repeated queries from the Times. Few people in the table tennis world are willing to criticize him publicly.

His rivals in the presidential election are the Swedish incumbent, Petra Sörling, and Mohamed El Hacen Ahmed Salem of Mauritania.

Al-Mohannadi has been associated with the federation for decades. After he was elected its deputy president in 2005, accusations mounted that the Qatar Table Tennis Association had engaged in vote-buying. Delegates spoke of money stuffed in envelopes and travel expenses being covered in return for support from nations in Africa and Eastern Europe.

The case was brought to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland. After receiving testimony from more than a dozen witnesses who described a range of electoral irregularities, the arbitrator ruled that there was "convincing evidence that bribery did take place."

The election was annulled, and Al-Mohannadi did not run in the next one, held in 2006. But in 2014, he was again voted in as deputy president.

Although there is little local interest in table tennis in Qatar, it has hosted the world championships twice. Al-Mohannadi, who used to work for the Qatari government as an undersecretary and at the state broadcaster, has promoted the sport for more than 30 years.

"When we say Qatar has become the home of world table tennis, we are not exaggerating," Al-Mohannadi told local news media.

In recent years, Qatar has been raising its global profile through sports. It has naturalized athletes from other nations to compete in the Olympics and has played host to major international events, most famously the men's soccer World Cup in 2022. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, officials for FIFA, soccer's governing body, were bribed to vote for Qatar to host that tournament, in what many consider one of the dirtiest votes in sports history.

Qatar denies all the allegations. Qatar has also held world championships in athletics, handball and artistic gymnastics.

On the eve of the table tennis championships in Doha, Qatari officials boasted that tickets had sold fast. Chinese fans, who are among the sport's most avid, complained that they couldn't get seats. But at many of the early matches, the stands were devoid of spectators, except for officials and players' entourages.

There are 227 member associations in the table tennis federation -- more than in the United Nations -- and each voting representative in the election Tuesday is eligible for about a weeklong stay in Qatar, with flights and luxury accommodations covered.

In 2021, Swiss Table Tennis and its German counterpart raised various concerns about Al-Mohannadi, including his ownership of a Qatari sports company that imported table tennis equipment, something that the federation's rules appear to forbid. (Al-Mohannadi eventually transferred the company to a family member.) The federation's then-president suspended Al-Mohannadi from his vice-presidential duties over those concerns.

But an internal investigation by the federation absolved Al-Mohannadi.

Board members who were supportive of him said they had lost faith in the president, who left the federation soon afterward.

Swiss Table Tennis, under new leadership, later apologized for its complaint against Al-Mohannadi, singling out Silberschmidt, who had left the organization for unrelated reasons, for responsibility.

Several officials with the international federation who had conflicts with Al-Mohannadi and his supporters have left their jobs. Al-Mohannadi is also a director of World Table Tennis, the federation's commercial arm, which is run through a web of companies that extends across three continents and several tax havens.

Five people who served on table tennis boards with Al-Mohannadi said he was rarely interested in the details of governance, often staying away from meetings for long stretches of time. He occasionally spoke up to complain that the hotel suites in which federation officials were staying were lacking, they said.

The current accommodations for federation delegates who have gathered in Doha for Tuesday's election, one member from the Caribbean said, are "spectacular."